Signs Of A Revival, But No Quick Fix

January 31, 1993|by CRAIG SMITH, Special to The Morning Call

It was two years ago that the Lehigh wrestling program hit rock bottom.

The folks close to the program knew it had been in a free fall from the rooftop of Grace Hall since the glory years of the 1970s, but it landed with the thud of a 10-car pile-up on Route 22 when legendary coach Dan Gable blurted to the press in January of 1991 that he wouldn't be bringing his Iowa team back to the Valley anytime soon. Not after his club had embarrassed the Engineers by a 42-4 score. "Not unless something changes," he said at the time.

A former NCAA and Olympic gold medal champion, Gable is still the most recognizable figure in the sport and he's used to speaking his mind at almost any cost.

You just know that Lehigh alums and fans remember his comment and would like the chance to remind Gable of his disrespectful words after the school puts the pieces of its once proud tradition back together. But it's been like Charles Atlas starting as a 98 pound weakling all over again. It will take time.

The team bottomed out with a 3-11 dual meet record that season, finished eighth at the post-season Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championships, and failed to have even a single wrestler qualify for the NCAA Championships for the first time in 40 years.

Now with a string of six losing dual meet seasons in a row and a seventh on the way, the school is still brash enough to preach a "Revival in Amazing Grace Hall" through an outdoor advertising campaign. There are about a dozen hot pink billboards in the area proclaiming that the Lehigh wrestling program is going to be saved from too many more losing seasons.

"It was definitely for shock value, to get people's attention," says Solomon Fleckman, who turned to creative marketing for the athletic department this year after being an All-American wrestler in 1992. "We had to clear it with every religious agency we could think of to make sure no one was offended," says Fleckman.

Signs of a revival ARE peeking through with current wrestlers Rick Hepp (167) and Steve Cassidy (150) being nationally ranked. Both are underclassmen with a chance at a national title.

But recent losses to Rider and Brown show clearly that all is not well.

Head coach Tom Hutchinson, now in his fifth season, is armed with recruiting money in the form of unrestricted scholarships (about two a year), but he has been slow to hand out the first aid. Only two members of the 1992-93 roster are on wrestling scholarships. That's like putting a band-aid on a cut that required emergency help by dialing 911.

Hutchinson is also lucky to have the backing of a president who was a collegiate wrestler at Stanford.

"The sport of wrestling meant so much to me personally, that I cannot pretend to be objective in my attitude toward the sport at Lehigh," Dr. Peter Likins wrote in a letter published in this year's media guide. It is not just another of Lehigh's 23 sports. It's the one that matters!

Putting the pieces back together has not been easy. Just ask athletic director Joe Sterrett, who was a determined quarterback for the Engineers in the mid-1970s. While he was throwing 22 touchdown passes and earning College Division All-America honors in 1975, Mike Frick was in preseason drills on his way to his second national title at 134 pounds.

Lehigh finished first in the EIWA's and fifth in the NCAA's in each of those two seasons, enjoying a mountaintop perch over Eastern rivals Penn State and Navy. Boy, has that changed!

The Engineers haven't beaten either team in the last three years and has finished no better than 6th in the EIWA's. Will this year be different?

Sterrett hopes so, but he urges patience on the part of loyal fans like Bob Gross who has held season tickets since shortly after World War II.

"The most difficult task in all of this is to have patience, but not accept it as an excuse," says Sterrett. "We are challenged by what we want from our wrestling program and by what our community wants from our program, but we are not able to do it in a quick fix fashion.

"There is progress, but we're probably a year away from fielding our best lineup. Last year we sent three wrestlers to nationals. This year maybe four or five will qualify. Once we earn our way back it will be easier to stay there because we will have done it the right way.

"No question we want to be the best team in the East and be competitive on the national level." But right now they still have a long way to go to get where they've been.